


Heroes Beyond

by Anderoak



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman Beyond, Superman - All Media Types, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-05-15 15:09:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19298245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anderoak/pseuds/Anderoak
Summary: Terry McGinnis and his father moved to Japan after his mother and brother were killed in a gang bombing. While Terry doesn't care about most heroes, the only one left that he still admires, Batman, has decided to mentor him as he enters UA high.





	1. Bruce Wayne

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've written anything. Like at all. Hopefully you guys don't hate this story too much

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep editing these chapters sorry, I wanted to make a note, after chapter 4 I plan to do a time skip as I intended for these first 3 chapters to take place about 2 years before the first episode of the series, but I can't seem to find a clear timeline for the series. Some things will happen sooner, but the reasoning for the extra time is that Midoriya can receive more training with all for one and we can have terry be somewhat experienced as the new batman, without just rehashing all the events of the early series.

Chapter 1: Bruce Wayne

  


“It’s time to pick a successor, Bruce,” Toshinori said looking out the window of the diner sadly. In his weaker form he looked right at home next to the now aged billionaire. He was having more and more trouble maintaining the peace with his every weakening powers. 

  


“Maybe you don’t pick one,“ Bruce said tiredly, “We’re relics of a bygone age Toshinori, the world doesn’t want us anymore.” Bruce had retired from hero work 15 years ago. His body had been too worn down from years of abuse from his enemies. When Gotham needed him most he failed to save them. 

  


“Maybe you’re right,” Toshinori looked to his friend sadly, “Maybe the world has moved on from Batman and All Might. However, I think they still need someone like me. I know what you’ve lost my friend, but I asked you to meet me here to help me find my replacement,” he pulled up a briefcase he had brought to the diner. He set it on the table and popped it open revealing 3 files.

  


Bruce grabbed the first one and looked through it. He was impressed. Toshinori wasn’t known to do this level of research.

  


“I’ve only found three candidates so far. Two of them go to a local junior high, Aldera,” while Toshinori continued Bruce set down the first file and began reading through the second, “They’ve shown a lot of promise to be great heroes on their own, just think of what one for all could do for them.”

  


Bruce finished the second file and moved to the last one. This one momentarily caught his attention. Spent a year in juvenile hall after he was caught in a local gang, a decent enhancement quirk, five times a regular humans speed, strength, and stamina. He used to live in Seattle but after the gang he was briefly a member of blew up a local stadium his father moved himself and his son to Musutafu.

  


“This boy,” Bruce said looking towards Toshinori, “His father moved him across the world. What about his mother? Divorced?” he asked. Toshinori looked sad at the question.

  


“No,” he replied hesitantly, “the explosion the file mentions, the boys mother and little brother had been there that day, they died.”

  


Bruce reread the last file before setting all of them aside.

  


“No,” he said lifting his hand to stop his friends oncoming interruption. “I’ll help you find a replacement but these three won’t do. The first is too angry,” he dropped the first file on the table, read Katsuki Bakugou, “The second promising but his body may already be too well adjusted  to his current limits,” he dropped the file for Mirio Togata. He held the final file looking at the photo once more.

  


“And that one,” asked Toshinori, “what’s wrong with him?”

  


Bruce looked to his friend once more. He dropped the file on the table.

  


“Too much like me,” he said once more glancing at the file that read Terrence Mcginnis. Toshinori looked disappointed. To some degree he wanted someone like Bruce to take the power. As Batman, Bruce had prioritized catching villains and saving innocents over everything else. He hadn’t cared about brand deals or publicity. 

  


“Why is that a prob-” An explosion down a nearby street interrupted Toshinori. Both men rushed out of the diner. 

  


“Go,” Bruce growled out at Toshinori.

  


\---------------------------------------- 

  


Bruce sat alone in his villa, reading the requested after action report from Toshinori 

  


The sludge villain had latched onto Katsuki Bakugou. In desperation Bakugou released near constant explosions igniting most of the back alley. Pro heroes had to focus on stopping the damage he was doing as they were unable to get close enough to save the poor boy. Out of nowhere the boys friend, Izuku Midoriya had flown in and attempted to fly Bakugou away from the villain, but had almost been killed himself. All Might arrived on the scene and was able to save the two boys and contain the villain into two water bottles. 

Bruce chuckled at the ridiculousness of his friend. At least he no longer needed to help him find a replacement. Izuku Midoriya would be the new symbol of peace. Toshinori had seen something in the boy. Bruce couldn’t see it himself. Midoriya was too idealistic. Then again maybe it was a good thing Bruce couldn’t understand Toshinori’s reasoning. 

  


It was nearing midnight, and while he was still a night owl, even he needed his sleep, especially now, in his late 50’s. However, as he moved to go to bed, the proximity alarm on his property went off.


	2. Terry McGinnis

Chapter 2: Terry McGinnis

He hated his new school. His new class was full of a bunch of clowns. Most of them were obsessed with being “heroes” like that was something worth pursuing. The worst ones though had to be Bakugou and Midoriya. Bakugou was a loudmouth, he would trash talk anyone who’s quirk didn’t live up to his standards of what it takes to be a hero. Well anyone except Midoriya, for some reason he would leave him be despite the constant bullying of everyone else.

Midoriya was his own special kind of annoyance though. He was always going on and on about heroes, especially the “symbol of peace” All Might. The only hero Terry would ever admit to admiring has been retired since he was a little kid, Batman. At least he wasn’t a coward. He fought the villains tooth and nail until he just couldn’t fight anymore. Even when Batman couldn’t go on he still pushed, trying to save Gotham. Unfortunately, he blew up right along side it.

He still didn’t understand why his dad had dragged them halfway around the world. They had the funerals for his mom and brother and just left. He can’t even visit their graves. All the memories of his family, just abandoned with their old home. His dad left everything. The only photo Terry had anymore was the one he kept in his wallet. It was worn down, tearing on the edges but Terry would look at it every night.

Of course, the day had already gotten off to a bad start. Terry had accidentally bumped Bakugou in the hall and had gotten into a fight for his trouble. Well, “fight” was a strong word. Terry had taken a gut punch and had given a pretty good black eye to Bakugou. Didn’t matter that he hadn’t started the fight, Terry got punished with detention, while Bakugou got away free of even a lecture.

\---------------------------------------------------

“Why would you beat that boy up Terry,” Warren, Terry’s father, demanded. As soon as he got home, his father was already grilling him. 

“I didn’t, dad,” he explained desperately, “I bumped into him-”

“You bumped into him and it gave him a black eye,” skepticism dripping from Warren’s voice, “You have a decently powerful quirk but that doesn’t mean you should go punching your way out of every situation. Your grounded Terry.”

Terry was mad, his father was going to believe some bratt over him?

“Mom would have heard me out,” he mumbled, but not quietly enough.

“Your Mom is gone Terry,” Warren said sadly, reaching out to his son, only to have his armed slapped away.  
“Yeah, I know she’s dead,” Terry shouted, still fuming, “Maybe, I lost the wrong parent.”

It was an instant of immediate shame. He couldn’t believe he had said that. From the look Warren gave him, he couldn’t either. Before his father could react, before sanity could return to the boy and he could apologize, Terry ran out the front door. He knew he would have to face his father again, but he couldn’t handle it then. 

Before he knew it, he’d gotten himself lost. He had been running for hours. He checked the time, it was nearly midnight. While Musutafu wasn’t too large, Terry was still used to Seattle. At that point he wasn’t even sure if he had still been in Musutafu. Seemed like he was out of the city limits at least. Rather than the usual bustling city around him, there was only a few buildings spread out and a fairly large house on a hill. He pulled his phone out to call his dad, hopefully get to apologize, but as he did, he was tackled to the ground and his phone was taken from him.

“All right clown,” he yelled as he shoved off his attacker, “give that back and i won’t…” he trailed off. He wasn’t expecting a literal clown. The outfit she wore left very little to the imagination and yet all together she was purely unnerving.

“No can do kiddo,” she said, almost with a faint chuckle, “Now turn out or pockets or my friends will do it for ya.” From behind her several more disturbing clowns walked out of the shadows. He readied himself for a fight, but his father’s words from earlier replayed in his head. He may be able to take these clowns but not today. Instead Terry booked it towards the villa. Hopefully if someone was there they could call the cops.

The gate got ever closer in his vision. When he finally reached it, it was locked. After giving it a good pushing, hoping to knock it over with his quirk, he knew his best bet was to climb it. 

“What are you doing here, “ he heard a vaguely familiar voice demand. He looked and saw an older man, maybe late 50’s walking up to him with a cane. “Get off my fence.”

“Look old man we gotta get inside, there some crazy clowns on the way here and-” he was interrupted by the clown woman’s laughter.

“Look at this boys,” she said twirling a bat, “he ran to some old geezer for help.”

The older man turned to face her. Terry readied himself to fight the group off.

“It’s okay old man I’ve got this,” the words slipped out but Terry wasn’t sure himself. However, before Terry could react the man had dropped his cane and was on the offensive. In what seemed like an instant the man had disarmed and taken down the woman, and was moving to his next target. Terry did end up having to join the fight, and while he wasn’t a refined fighter, his enhancement quirk made up for it. It made him faster, stronger, and helped him fight longer. It wasn’t long before the remaining clowns were down.

“That was amazing, where’d you learn to fight like that,” Terry asked before he noticed the man clenching his chest, “oh crap what’s wrong?”

“Need my medicine, in the house,” he groaned out, leaning on Terry for support. 

\--------------------------------------------

The old man had fallen asleep shortly after taking his medicine. Terry had tried calling his father, but there was no signal. He tried a few more times, but nothing would get through. So Terry was just sitting there, waiting for the old man to wake up. It really bothered him that he couldn’t place the old man’s voice. Of course it was late, and Terry would eventually succumb to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing worth noting is that I'm debating still on who to actually pair Terry with. I'm torn between Mina and Momo. feel free to share your thoughts on this. Also I'm probably gonna change the rating for the story due to chapter 3. I know in the original show terry's mom and his brother, Matt, are fine. In the comics his mom dies later but I had them killed off so we could get Terry into Bruce's care full time. Giving him a more batfamily typical relationship with Bruce.


	3. Bruce/Warren

Chapter 3: Bruce Wayne/Warren McGinnis

_Bruce 3:00 am_

He woke up with a sharp pain in his back. He felt the sting of the artificial light on his eyes, blinding him for a moment.

Once he finally could see, he noticed the boy from earlier. He had fought well enough, the technique was sloppy but still the boy had managed 3 enemies at once. He had seen a very familiar rage. Noticing the time, he assumed the boys father would be searching for him. He stepped towards him to grab his wallet but then froze for a moment.

\----------------------------------------------

_Warren 7:00pm the day prior_

His son wished he was dead instead of his wife. He knew he didn’t mean it. Terry was angry, he missed his mother, he missed his brother Matt. Warren had tried calling a few times but Terry was screening him. After the fifth attempt he settled for leaving a message. He just hoped his son would listen to it.

He was having a bit of trouble forming the right words. He redid the voicemail itself four or five times before he felt he had finally conveyed his point. 

Knock knock knock

\---------------------------------------------

_Bruce_

The boy didn’t have a wallet on him, he must have forgotten it. It was the boy from Toshinori’s files, Terrence McGinnis.That should be enough to get an address. He placed a blanket over Terry, and mentally apologized that he didn’t have a couch for him to lay on. 

His office was down the hall. He pulled open his laptop, he ran a search for his name, and it dinged back with a news article, four hours old.

\---------------------------------------------

_Warren_ 

He jumped up, hoping it was Terry, maybe his son had just forgotten his keys. In his excitement he forgot one critical thing. He didn’t lock the door after Terry left, and Terry never knocks first. 

“TERRY,” Warren greeted excitedly only to be greeted by a bright flash.

\---------------------------------------------

“No,” Bruce whispered. The timing was too perfect. What was done to the house. The article itself tried to hide the body, but it didn’t take long for Bruce to get into police files. The sick smile carved on the man’s face.

He was dead. There was no way he could have done this. Jason had killed him. He stood in a rush, too quickly for his aged body. Reliving the pain in his back from his unconventional sleeping arrangements, Bruce fell to the floor inciting a loud bang and a grunt. He heard Terry call out to him.

\---------------------------------------------

Warren tried to crawl away from his attacker a bullet in his stomach preventing him from standing. He had to get to his desk, ever since the incident in Seattle, Warren made sure there was at least one gun in the house. He wouldn’t let this mad man make an orphan of Terry.

“Hehehe look at him, he thinks he can live,” the man was caught in a fit of giggles.

“Bud, Lou, search the place,” he ordered and two more men dressed clowns rushed in. He walked over to Warren and yanked him up, placing a knife in his mouth.

Warren got a good look at the man, white skin, green hair, and a grotesque smile on his face. He felt the edge of the knife carve into his cheek.

“Smile,” the man said, slowly digging into warren’s cheek, “Don’t you know? You’re the first witness, The Joker is back baby!”

\---------------------------------------------

_Terry_

He rushed into the old man’s office, at least now maybe he could get a ride home. He found Bruce picking himself off the floor. 

“I’m fine, Terrence,” he explained he reached to lead him from the room. He shouldn’t have to see what was done to his father, “Listen, there’s something I need to tell you.”  
“It’s Terry actually,” Terry waved off on instinct but then froze, “wait how did you know my name?”

“You told me earlier,” the Bruce lied. He reached to grab Terry’s arm but, Terry moved easily to avoid him.

“What were you looking at,” he demanded rushing to the computer but was once more frozen in shock at what he saw.

“Dad,” he whispered, looking at his father’s mangled face on the computer’s screen.

“I’m sorry, Terry,” Bruce said, catching the younger man before he could fall.


	4. ?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates will be slowing after these next too chapters. Gotta get back to my day job for a bit. Ill still be working in the background but It wont be like 5 chapters in 3 days

Chapter 4: ?

An older woman sat alone, in a small apartment. The domicile was darkened completely aside from the light of her, fairly modest, television. She had been hoping for something like this for years. A sick, dark hope, one she had long since given up on.

\------------------------------------------

Channel 8 news

“Sad news today in Musutafu. At 7:00 pm yesterday, January 20th, Warren McGinnis was murdered in his home. Early images show a style of brutality similar to one Jack Napier, Known by his villain name, The Joker. Local police and heroes suspect a copycat villain, as Napier was killed in The Gotham explosion, on March 12th, 2022.” An image of the deceased Joker appeared above the Anchor woman’s shoulder, before flashing to an image of Warren and Terry.

“Warren is survived by his elder son, having tragically lost his wife and younger child to another villain attack in Seattle several months ago. Terry is currently under the care of Bruce Wayne, local billionaire, and one of the few survivors of Gotham.”

The Screen switched to an outdoor shot of a press conference held by Bruce, Terry stood behind him on the stage.

“It is a truly tragic day today. No one should have to have family members ripped as young Terry has. I lost my own parents such acts of gruesome violence, before the age of heroes really came about. Jack Napier was a truly sick man, produced by a failed system. To see such a monster revered like this with copycats makes me sick. Worst of all, however, our heroes have been doing nothing to stop the imitators, Terry himself rescued me from being attacked by this Jokerz gang. I can only hope after this act, our pro heroes might now remember that gang violence is just as important as stopping villains.”

Bruce made to walk off the stage, Terry following behind. A few small time heroes keeping the paparazzi from accosting the pair.

\-----------------------------------------------

She had abandoned hope for a new Batman, but that look in McGinnis’ eyes told her everything she needed to know. Batman would return.


	5. Terry McGinnis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> briefly going over Terry's two years of training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going back over this chapter, and noticed some dumb mistakes, hopefully i caught everything this time.

Chapter 5: Terry McGinnis

August 1, 2039

It had been two years since Terry had come into Bruce’s care. It didn’t take long for Bruce’s lawyers to get Terry legally adopted. It had been awkward at first. Terry wasn’t sure why the old man had chosen to take him in. Not at first at least.

It wasn’t long before he started training himself. He was going to take down the new Joker, make him pay for killing his father. The Jokerz Gang had spread more and more throughout the city, despite Bruce’s speech most heroes continued to ignore them. A few, such as Eraser Head, would round them up fairly often, but the cult like group was growing more and more every day.

Training was a kind word. Terry wasn’t learning to fight, he was hunting down Jokerz, and beating them, hoping for information on where the big bad was hiding. None of them would ever say anything of course, but it was a decent outlet for his aggression. That is until Bruce caught him.

It had been a rough few nights for them. Constant fighting, yelling and a surprising few fists thrown, from both sides. Over and over until it finally came to a head

“What the hell would you even know about this old man,” Terry demanded, furious, “when you lost your parents you just ran away!”

“You don’t know what your talking about,” the older man growled out, “I took you in to keep you from making the same rash decisions as me, and yet here you are, breaking peoples jaws every night.

Bruce contemplated for a moment. ‘He won’t stop, He’ll keep going every night until it’s not me that catches him….’

“Your angry,” he said, recomposing himself, “there’s no one who understands that better than me. You want to get back at this pretend Joker for what he’s done to you,” he paused to look towards Terry, “Tell me, what would you do to him when you finally caught him? Kill him?”

“Well yeah… of course-” Terry was cut off.

“Then you would be no better than him, hell you’d be letting him and his lunatic disciples win.”

Terry looked at him confused, “What the hell are you talking about old man?”

“This new Joker is obsessed with his predecessors ideology, Jack Napier believed that no one person was above killing others, if they truly wanted. Society was just a lie and our true nature was chaos. This new one is trying to plunge Musutafu into the same Chaos Napier threw Gotham into.”

“All the more reason to take him out,” Terry said, annoyed.

“No, killing him would only prove him right. Take him in however, let a court prove him wrong,” Bruce slowly started walking towards his office. He opened the door and signaled for Terry to walk in.

“So what I’m just supposed to leave it for the cops? The only hero even looking towards the Jokerz is Eraser Head.”

“No, it should be you Terry,” Bruce moved towards his bookshelf, placing his hand on a red book but not removing it.

“I can’t, not how you want, not legally.”

Sighing, Bruce kept his hand on the book but turned to face Terry. “No, not as an untrained minor. You’ll take him out as a hero. One who cares about the small and big problems.”

“How am I gonna do that,” Terry asked, exasperated, “My quirk is alright for a fight but it’s not like I’m the next All Might over here.” 

Bruce finally pulled the book out. The bookshelf popped open, revealing a dark full body armor, black in its entirety aside from the red eyes, and large red bat.

“Not the next All Might, I’m going to train you to be the next Batman.”

From that day forward, for two years Terry knew nothing but his training, Bruce was fairly spry for an old man. It was odd at first, Terry had to get used to having his quirk constantly shut off. Bruce had insisted he learn to fight without it. It wasn’t slow training either. Bruce threw him into the deep end. Boxing, Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, Ninjitsu, and Bruce’s personal style, Keysi. 

That was just the physical part, Terry would every night have homework, previous cases Batman had solved, code breaking, hacking, lock picking. During meals Bruce would have them play games such as chess or go. 

They would also work on the batsuit itself every night. Terry had a similar build to Bruce during his final years as Batman, so the actual sizing wasn’t an issue. They were upgrading it. They added a blackened mouthpiece, which functioned as a re-breather and made it easier for the suit to hold itself airtight. They also added in new coms to allow Terry and Bruce to easily stay in contact for when Terry could finally go into the field. Finally they added retractable wings to the back, and compact jet propulsion to the boots. It was Terry’s idea and while Bruce resisted at first, but after Terry explained it had been based on Izuku Midoriya’s maneuverability with his own flying quirk, Bruce had warmed to the idea fairly quickly.

Two years of constant training and preparation. All pushing Terry towards UA. The night before the entrance exam, Bruce had oddly allowed Terry a break. The two would simply have dinner and talk.

“You’ve done well Terry,” Bruce began, “But tomorrow is when you prove yourself worthy to be my replacement.”

“Oh come on old man, with your training? I’m practically guaranteed the top spot,” Terry replied back smugly.

“You know I have trained more than my fair share of heroes. They were all great in their own way, but only one is still active today. Barbara, Jason, Tim, and Damian, all retired missing or dead. Shota is still active, but he stopped using Nightwing a long time ago.”

“What happened to them,” Terry asked, worried for his mentor.

“Barbara was killed in the Gotham explosion. Tim retired after a traumatic incident with the original Joker. Jason, we thought, had been crippled by the Joker. At the time I was just happy I hadn’t lost him, but he had been faking. He operated as the Vigilante Red Hood for years before he disappeared.”

“And Damian?”

“Retired hopefully. My son left to rejoin his mother’s side of the family,” Bruce answered, looking towards his lap sadly.

“They were the Robins and Batgirl right? I had always thought they were your sons and daughter.”

“They were in a way. That’s how I view them anyway. Damian was my only biological child.” 

It was rare for Bruce to open up like this, but Terry had earned a glimpse into his past.

“The reason I’m telling you this is because you need to learn from them. Every Robin had problems, Shota, Jason, and Damian were far too arrogant, much like yourself. Tim neglected his body for his mind. He was a brilliant young man but he leaned too hard on it at times and it cost him greatly. Barbara was a brilliant fighter and a great detective, but she allowed her emotions to compromise her in the field at times. Before she died, she had actually retired, she had joined the police force. I didn’t tell her but I was so proud of her for finding her place in the world. She was a brilliant hero but I could tell she was never happier than when she joined the GCPD.”

The air around the two had become tense. Bruce had lost a lot and he refused to let Terry’s name join the list of the fallen.

“You have the potential to be better than all of us bats were, Terry. Don’t make our mistakes.

The night ended on that somber note. Bruce sent him away, said he needed to rest before his exam the next day. Terry, however had trouble sleeping. For the first time since he met Bruce the true gravity of the legacy he was bearing truly hit him. He refused to let Batman and his family down.


	6. Bruce Wayne/Terry McGinnis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies in advanced for my poor ability to write action.

Chapter 6: Bruce Wayne/Terry McGinnis

The morning of the exam

On Bruce’s insistence, Terry was up earlier than usual. He wanted to make sure Terry got a good breakfast before the exam. It was a fairly silent meal, a far cry from the meal that had shared the night before. Eventually, Terry couldn’t bare the silence anymore.

“Any idea what I should expect out there today,” he asked, a bit of toast hanging out of his mouth.

“Chew your food,” Bruce responded instantly, “They change the exam every year, so no one can have an unfair advantage.” Bruce contemplated for a moment. “The core of the exam has always been to test how effective you would be at stopping a villain, saving any civilians, and how well you adapt under pressure. No one goes in prepared.”

“But, isn’t that the opposite of what you’ve taught me,” Terry asked, “I mean your always on about how I should never go into a situation unprepared.”

“I’ve taught you to observe your surroundings, to be able to ensure you have the tactical advantage as often as possible. You’re no speedster but your fast with your quirk. Once the exam has begun you should use that to your advantage and find out what exactly your strategy should be. I have the utmost faith in you,” Terry smiled a bit. It was rare for the old man to overtly compliment him, “That is assuming you don’t botch the written exam first,” Bruce finished.

‘Aaaand just like that the moment was ruined,’ Terry thought, vaguely annoyed.

“Hey I have been studying believe it or not, I’ll ace the written portion AND the practical. Just you watch old man,” Bruce grunted but otherwise didn’t respond. After a few more moments of silence Terry asked, “So why did you quit anyway? I mean it’s not like you couldn’t handle yourself still, I’ve got the bruises to prove it. Age hasn’t slowed you much.”

Bruce was silent for a moment. Terry was hopeful that after last night Bruce would finally be opening up to him. Unfortunately, Terry forgot who he was talking to.

“It’s a story for another time, come on, I’ll drive you to the testing area,” Bruce said, standing to move towards the door.

“Wait are you going to watch?”

\------------------------------------------------

He had been dropped at the front of the school. He caught sight of a few familiar faces on the way in. Midoriya was chatting with a brown haired girl, though she looked nervous. Could be the ever present glare on Bakugou’s face. Seems like he was genuinely trying to be friendly.

A quick glance around revealed a decent variety of hopefuls. There was one kid who’s hair looked like a rhino horn, but red and white. Another was a girl with pink skin and horns. They all shuffled slowly into the exam hall. 

Terry had trouble staying focused during Present Mic’s explanation of the point system, the pink haired girl from earlier was sitting next to him, bouncing up and down excitedly. He took a quick check towards her card and saw her name was Mina Ashido, and that they would be in the same battle hall. He got the jist of it. Different sized robots, different points for each one minus the big bad. Seemed fairly straight forward, which concerned him. Bruce had said the test was over more than just how well you can fight.

He didn’t need to wait for long to figure it out though. The teacher led everyone to their starting zone to begin the test. He took a quick glance around. The pink girl from earlier was now seemingly focused. No sign of Midoriya or Bakugou. Must be in different testing areas. Again he wasn’t allowed much time to observe, as the start of the exam was quickly announced. 

Terry immediately sprinted forward as fast as his quirk could push him, he wanted to get the high ground before fighting, better assess the situation, but he robots where quick to appear. Luckily, Bruce’s training had prepared him for a lot. Two robots came at him at once, he dodged the first, grabbed the second’s arm, punched the joint connecting the arm to the body breaking it off, and then used the now severed arm to stab the first robot. Afterwards he began working on climbing a nearby building.

Once on the roof, Terry got a good look at what was happening. There were quite a few strength enhancement quirks in this testing area, so it caught his eye to see Mina Ashido, the pink girl, surfing around on her bare feet, and flinging what appeared to be her sweat at the robots and melting them. 

Another quick glance around and he found what he was looking for.

\----------------------------------------------------------

Bruce

Still sitting in his car, Bruce pulled out his laptop. While the faculty would never allow him to watch Terry’s performance, the security system on the cameras barely required effort to get past. He scanned several feeds before finally finding one with Terry in it, just in time to see Terry jump straight into a pile of robots. If it had been anyone else, He would have been worried. He knew Terry could handle it.  
\------------------------------------------------------

Terry

The object of the exam was to wrack as many points as possible in half an hour. Terry knew he had the strength to punch through the robots, but that would fatigue him too quickly. Instead he would lead the enemy attacks, when a robot charge him he would dodge and apply just a little pressure, slamming one robot into another at full speed. With the broken parts of the robots, he would arm himself to keep from wearing himself down to quickly. 

Armed as he was he had an easier time jumping into the fray. Rather than draw attention to himself, he focused on the robots already targeting other students, the ones who weren’t paying enough attention to their surroundings. He would continue like this for around 20 minutes.

The exam was nearing its end when he heard it. A scream. He searched out its source to find it was Mina. Her arm was bent out of shape. From the small holes on the robot she was facing it seemed like she had used as much of her acid as she could. Terry rushed in as he saw the robot pull its arm back, taking the blow on his shoulder. With a grunt he twisted himself and kicked the robots head off. He helped Mina stand as they heard the horn, signaling the end of the exam. 

“Wait here, I’m going to get you a doctor,” He told her. He could vaguely hear her call out to him as he ran off, but the priority was getting her arm fixed. It didn’t take very long to find an elderly woman working her way from another testing area.

“Old lady, we’ve got a hurt kid. Broken arm, looks like one solid snap,” he said as he ran up to her. She whacked him on the head when he got in range.

“That’s quite rude young man,” She said glaring at him, “now take me to this student.”

He walked her towards Mina, only to find that she had followed after him, only much slower, grimacing with her steps.

“What are you stupid,” Terry asked, annoyed, “Your arm is broken, you shouldn’t be moving.”

Mina looked at him annoyed. Recovery girl, the elderly nurse, used her quirk, kissed Mina’s arm, and it snapped back into place. ‘Oof that probably hurt,’ thought Terry.

“Don’t be a dick, besides i had to make sure you got your back looked at, you took a hit straight to it,” Mina said, pointing at him. Recovery girl gave a huff of annoyance before healing Terry as well.

“My name’s Mina by the way,” she said, a beaming smile on her face. It unnerved Terry a bit how quick she want from angry at him to overjoyed.

“Terry McGinnis,” He said shortly. He turned towards the exit, and she followed, evidently not getting the hint.

“Thanks for saving me back there, I know the teachers wouldn’t let us die or anything but that probably would have hurt.”

“I wasn’t just going to let you take the hit,” he said not slowing his pace. They chatted a bit longer on the way out, minor stuff like favorite bands, foods, and the like. Eventually Terry and Mina made their way out of the testing hall, where Bruce had been waiting for him. 

“Well done, Terry,” Bruce said when he was in range, he had a rare smile on his face. Mina saw her parents and ran off to them after a quick goodbye to Terry, she had given him her phone number, declaring she would never forgive him is he didn’t tell her if he got into UA.

“You think I’m going to make it in,” Terry asked, his insecurities sinking in, "I mean I messed up pretty bad taking that hit, I should have just hit the robot, would have still saved her and taken the thing out without needed to get patched up.”

“You did great, there were some issues we need to work on, but all in all it was a success. Besides the teachers would be crazy to not accept a student who performed that well, and also had an endorsement from a well respected retired hero.” 

Terry smiled lightly for a moment. During the exam he had tried to stay perfectly focused but he still had a few moments of doubt. Worried he would fail the legacy he had been brought into. 

“You said there’s things I need to work on,” Terry asked. Bruce just smirked.

“That’s for tomorrow, tonight, we celebrate. After this your training starts in serious.”

Terry paused for a moment, dumb struck.

“Wait…. You weren’t serious before?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its worth noting that while Tim retired for the same reason in the Joker returns movie, Tim is not the new Joker. I intend to have Tim take on a similar role to what he had in the pre new-52 in the comics.


	7. Terry McGinnis/Mina Ashido

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully I didn't butcher Mina too bad

Chapter 7: Terry McGinnis/Mina Ashido

The night after the entrance exam

Terry was torn. The thrill of flying was both exhilarating and terrifying. He had crashed into a few trees when he first started, but now he was easily dodging around buildings at top speed.

“WOOO,” he yelled through the coms. On the other end, Bruce winced. 

“Not so loud, McGinnis,” he said. In the future he would no doubt be harsh for mistakes like that, but as it is now, this is the first time Terry seemed to be having genuine fun since his father’s passing.

“Oh come on old man, this suit is shway,” he said, some old slang slipping through. He had done his best to stop using it, but it still slipped through from time to time. “Hey are you sure we’re actually ok to do this?”

“I’ve cleared it with the local air marshals,” Bruce replied without hesitation, “I’m getting a little feedback on the video, audio too. We might need to increase the range on the suits receivers.”

“Really,” Terry asked, dodging around another building, “how far out am I?”

“Roughly 20 miles,” Bruce answered. He was already mentally drawing plans. He needed to get to work on the car, “Turn back before I lose you. We’ve gotten enough data on the flight for now.”

“We don’t need to test the other parts,” Terry questioned,” The strength enhancements and all that?”

“You don’t need to be out at night for that, we can do that at home,” Bruce explained, glaring at the monitor, ”I know what your trying to do Terry, your hunt for the Jokerz will have to wait until you have a provisional licence at least. Now come back.”

“Yeah I’m on the way,” Terry grumbled out.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

True to his word, Bruce had kept them up most of the night working on the suit. The other components of the suit were working fine, aside from some of the compartments of the built in utility belt getting jammed. Still staying up till 4 am and waking back up at 10 was a bit much for him. He’d rather not be out at all today, but he had promised Mina to meet up with her.

It was still a little weird to him how latched on to him she became, but given his distinct lack of friends, and that Mina was pretty entertaining to be around, he wasn’t going to complain. He scanned the mall, trying to spot Mina, ‘Jeez how hard would it be to see a pink girl,’ he thought. 

“BOO,” He heard shouted from behind him, he jumped a bit, turned, ready to fight, only to see The aforementioned pink girl, wearing a tank top that said pinky, smirking at him, “Ha I got you,” she said, laughing heartily. Terry grumbled a bit, disliking being the butt of the joke. 

“So,” He started, recomposing himself, “what’s the plan for today?”

“Well I invited a few others, but I wanted to get to know you a bit better first,” she replied, leading him towards the food court, “Also I hope your not poor cause I’m starving.”

Terry sighed and followed Mina, he was lucky Bruce gave him his own card for stuff like this. 

“Yeah go pick something out, I’ve got it,” 

\------------------------------------------------

After picking out some food, mostly just burgers, Mina lead Terry to a table so they could chat while waiting for her other friends, he seemed to be sulking a bit so she decided to try and distract him.

“So, Tell me about yourself Terry,” She asked him, a beaming smile ever present on her face.

“Uh, there’s not much to tell, my dad and I moved here from Seattle, I go to a nowhere middle school and hopefully I’ll be joining you at UA,” he said dismissively.

“Oh come on, there’s gotta be more to you than that,” She grumped, “You don’t seem like the wallflower type,” She stated, after Terry refused to respond to her she decided to go with a different topic.

“What about your mom,” she asked, though the question seemed to startle Terry a bit, “Why didn’t she come with you?”

“She died in Seattle,” Terry said, “Some dreg gang blew up a baseball stadium while she and my little brother were there.”

“Oh jeez, I’m so sorry I, I shouldn’t have pushed you,” She quickly apologized, looking genuinely remorseful. Today was supposed to be fun, light hearted and maybe get a new friend out of it. 

“Well what do you do for fun then,” She asked him, hoping to salvage the day.

“Honestly I haven’t really done much but train since I got here,” he answered, happy for the distraction, “Back home though it was fairly generic stuff, video games, I was on my school’s baseball team, that was fun sometimes. Oh and I read about heroes sometimes. 

“Oh nice,” finally, she thought, something that she could focus on, “Who was your favorite hero?”

“Batman.”

“Really,” she looked puzzled, “But he was so creepy.”

“Well yeah, that was his whole point. He wanted criminals to fear him. But most important, he was all about protecting people. That’s what heroes are supposed to be,” he replied, a faint glimmer in his eye. 

“Was it part of his quirk to scare people?”

“No, he was quirkless,” he said but quickly added, “or at least that’s what everyone thinks. He disappeared after the Gotham Incident.”

“Wasn’t he part of some team, The Justice something,” She asked, jumping at the chance to get Terry talking more.

“It was the Justice Society and no he wasn’t, he had his own team, but they were all local to Gotham.”

“Really? Seems like he could have done more good for the world if he had joined,” she said, absentmindedly slurping on a shake.

“Maybe, the heroes on that team have stopped a view big deal villains, but they fail their homes. That’s what happened to Seattle,” A dark look came over his face.

Mina panicked, the conversation had come right full circle back to the family taboo.

“Uuuuh, hey tell me more about your quirk,” She shouted, more of a demand than a question.

“Oh uh sure, it’s a basic enhancement quirk. I’m faster, and stronger than most people, have quicker reactions too, means I have a bit of a high metabolism though.”

“So like super strength and speed?”

“Not quite, I won’t be stopping any trains with my bare hands or anything, no weather changing punches, and I’m no Flash. The doctor my dad took me to said the closest estimate is I’m somewhere between five to ten percent stronger and faster than a quirkless human who works out regularly. Probably more though since I’ve been training, thanks to Bruce.”

“Bruce, who’s that?”

“He’s-,” Terry Started before being interrupted by a loud yell

“MINA,” a red haired boy said, he was grinning and waving somewhat frantically. Behind him was a girl with black hair, she looked fairly annoyed at her friends display.

“Oh,” Mina said, wide eyed at her friends arrival, “Terry these are my friends from middle school, Cassandra Cain and Roy Harper,” She gestured towards Terry, “This is terry McGinnis, we met during the UA entrance exam. He stopped a robot from punching me.”

Roy looked at him with squinted eyes for a moment before seemingly struck with realization. 

“Oh I recognize you, your that kid Wayne took in,” He looked like he was gonna say more but Cassandra elbowed him in the ribs. Mina looked quizzically at Terry while Roy shot him an apologetic look.

“Wayne?”

“Yeah, Bruce Wayne adopted me,” Terry explained shortly, hoping it was clear he didn’t want to discuss the matter, “So me and Mina look to be set for UA, what about you two?”

Cassandra finally spoke up, looking somewhat sad, “Maybe, our quirks aren’t very good for fighting robots, I can see any weak points on organic material,” She answered and Roy jumped in to explain his, “And I can instantly master any weapon handed to me. They’re great quirks if we wanted to join the military, but I don’t think we scored enough points to actually get in to UA.”

‘That’s weird,’ Terry thought. Bruce had seemed adamant that there was more to the test than just how many bots they could break.

“Maybe there was a different metric for grading in the background, with powers like yours, you could be great heroes,” he said, which seemed to bring light smiles to their faces. Mina jumped up behind him.

“Yeah! I keep telling them that,” she shouted with a large grin. The four of them hit it off easily enough.

“Come on, there’s an arcade around here somewhere,” Roy said, leading the group around the mall.

“Shway,” Terry said, finally relaxing a bit. Roy stopped for a second looking at Terry surprised.

“Man I haven’t heard that slang for a while,” Roy said, before continuing his pace

“Oh? You from the states too,” Terry asked.

“Yeah, my parents decided to move here, about 6 years ago, wanted to retire from the hero life,” the ginger teen replied.

“Oh nice, which heroes were they?”

“Green Arrow and Black Canary.”

Terry paused for a moment. Those had also been some of his favorites when he was a kid, but something was off about what Roy said.

“Wait, aren’t they both blonde,” the young bat asked more than said, hoping that’s all he would need to say.

“Oh! Oliver is my dad but Dinah is my stepmom. My real mom bailed when I was really little,” Roy said.

“Oh sorry, didn’t mean to pry,” Terry had the decency to look embarrassed.

“Hey it’s fine man, you hear my dad say it and she was a real dreg,” Roy said, happy to use some old slang.

Eventually they found themselves at the arcade. The group spent the rest of the day together, hoping to relieve the stress off seeing if they made it into UA.

\----------------------------------------------------------------

Terry

That night, Bruce brought Terry a letter marked with UA in the seal. Bruce had been right, They cared about more than just smashing some robots. There was a second grading metric called rescue points. Terry had a decent amount. 48 villain points and 14 rescue points. He had made it in. He grinned to himself for a moment, before hearing his phone vibrating, It was a group chat from Mina, she made it in as well. He replied that he had passed as well. He could only hope Roy and Cassandra passed as well.


	8. Terry McGinnis/Shota Aizawa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay. I've been fairly busy with work

Terry

In an old abandoned factory, Terry, in full Batman gear, was on the move. He was being followed by fully armed Joker thugs. His suit was damaged, no strength augments, no wings or jets. He’d run out of smoke pellets and couldn’t use his suits “Detective Vision” to check for an escape. Bruce was barking in his ear to fall back and regroup.

“It’s fine I can handle the dregs,” he said, uppercutting one of the Jokerz, but then taking a bullet to the shoulder.

“Fall back. Now.”

With a grunt he ran down a random stretch and as he did he caught sight of a broken bridge. The Jokerz wouldn’t be able to cross but he could. Or at least he hoped he could. He had been watching some vids the old man had on his computer. He sprinted towards the bridge, jumped, flipped mid air and felt the tips of his tos hit the grating on the other side. He hadn’t put enough weight into it and fell.

After a blinding flash, he was back in the new batcave. Bruce had found it shortly after he had moved here, and after meeting Terry, had slowly outfitted it to be their base of operations. 

‘Good thing Bruce is richer than God,’ Terry thought, removing the cowl of his suit. Bruce had design this simulator to be a no win scenario. No option but to run and Terry almost had it, if it wasn’t for the shoddy jump.

“I want to go again,” he said turning to his mentor, “I know what I did wrong.”

“No,” the original bat said in a deadpan voice, “I’ll have a new simulation ready for tomorrow night. It’s your first day UA, you need to be rested for class.”

“Oh come on, one more go old man.”

Bruce glared at Terry, “No. Bed. NOW.”

\-------------------------------------------

Bruce had wanted to drive him that morning, but Terry insisted on walking. He was hoping for words of encouragement from the old man, but instead he simply got a nod, and orders to not be late back. Terry would never be anything but grateful for being allowed into the Batman legacy, but more and more he seemed to be butting heads with Wayne. Nothing major, it was all over small things, how much time Terry spent with his new friends, his sense of humor, and a few other random things. 

Luckily a friendly face pulled him from his thoughts during his slow trek. He noticed a faint smile on the dark haired girl when he ran up to her. It was odd to see Cassandra in something other than her usual black clothes, but UA did require these oddly uncomfortable uniforms. Since the day at the mall, Terry had spent some more time with his new friends. 

“Cass,” he greeted, walking beside her. 

“Terry,” she replied, “Roy went on ahead, and knowing Mina she’s already at class picking out spots for us.”

“Glad you guys made it in.”

“Me too.”

There was the trademark silence he had grown to enjoy from Cassandra. While he enjoyed spending time with the group, it seemed like she was the only one who understood comfortable silence. Make no mistake Terry liked Mina and Roy, but the non stop energy could be tiring after a time.

The night the results came in, Roy and Cassandra had gone to bed early. They didn’t get their results until the morning. When they did Terry was assaulted by texts, mostly from Mina and Roy, excitedly declaring the two had made it in. 

Breaking from his thoughts, the duo found themselves at the front gates of UA. After _briefly _getting lost, and running into some kid with long thorny hair, they finally found their classroom, or at least the door to their classroom. Midoriya was talking a brown haired girl in the doorway. Well more getting talked at. His face was beat red and his every present friend, Bakugo, was laughing at him in the background. Terry was about to push his way past when he heard a vaguely familiar voice.__

____

__“Look behind you, your blocking other students,” the brunette went from confused to shocked and quickly jumped out of the way so Terry and Cassandra could get into the classroom. He found a seat next to Mina and Roy as the voice continued, “If you have that little awareness of your surroundings you should leave now.”_ _

__Following the direction of the voice, the class found a man in a bright yellow sleeping bag staring at them with what could only be described as tired eyes._ _

__“Welcome to UA’s hero course,” He stood up, unzipped his sleeping bag, and continued his tirade, “It took 8 seconds for you all to shut up, that’s not gonna work, time is precious, rational students would understand that.”_ _

__‘Oh it’s him,’ thought Terry. He didn’t expect to find this man teaching at UA. Hell he looks nothing like the old pictures._ _

__“Hello I’m Shota Aizawa, your teacher,” everything about this man screamed that he was bored and annoyed. He pulled what appeared to be blue track suits from the same sleeping bag he was just in, and instructed the students to put them on and follow him outside for a quirk assessment test._ _

__\------------------------------------------------------------_ _

__Aizawa had explained the eight tests he would be putting the students through. He wanted to see what all the students were capable of and he would be expelling the lowest scoring student, though Terry didn’t believe that. Probably just a scare to make the students try their hardest._ _

__Terry wanted to go all out, he wanted to prove right away that he was worthy of Batman’s name. However, Bruce would probably be even more disappointed if he went all out as soon as he met a bunch of random potential heroes. Just cause they got into the school doesn’t mean that these kids are definitely hero material. ‘I mean, Bakugo yelled DIE when he threw the freaking ball,’ he thought, ‘might be best to let them think I’m weaker. Could help me have the upper hand if I ever need it.’_ _

__He used about half his quirks output for the tests, and even still he managed to outrun Roy during the 50 meter dash. Cassandra outran the boy with the spiky red hair, and easily beaten his own time. He had missed Mina’s results, momentarily distracted by her relatively snug fitting gym uniform, before refocusing. She did beat the weird fake french kid though._ _

__While he had thrown a fair amount farther than most of the class, he was nowhere near Midoriya’s throw. The kid with the _flying quirk _managed to throw 900 meters, and it didn’t seem like he was even trying. Terry made a mental note to address this with Bruce._ _ __

__

__

__\------------------------------------------_ _

__Aizawa_ _

__This batch of students seemed promising. The few students who came in last during their events did so usually by a close margin. Maybe this year he wouldn’t expel a student._ _

__He had mixed up the tests, tried to make it so that everyone wouldn’t be doing the same tests at once, and keep the students on their toes. There were two students left who needed to do the standing long jump, Terry McGinnis, and Izuku Midoriya. Izuku’s quirk allowed him to “Enhance every part of his physical capabilities” he was previously registered with a flight quirk but supposedly after further research it allowed for many physical boosts and abilities. When the boy did his jump he simply flew to the other side with little issue._ _

__McGinnis got into position to do his jump. So far he had been one of the only students who seemed to be taking this seriously. The boys quirk was a fairly decent enhancement type. The seasoned hero could, however, tell that the boy had been holding back his quirk. He saw the boy bend down for the familiar jump, but was surprised. McGinnis had jumped forward, and at the peak of his jump, when it seemed like he wouldn’t clear the jump, flipped, and used the momentum to clear the sandbox, though it seemed like he’d almost fall back in for a moment._ _

__‘That jump..’_ _

__\-----------------------------------------------------_ _

__Terry_ _

__Much to be expected Aizawa at the end of the test had, in fact, confirmed that no student would be expelled. He had simply wanted to get everyone’s best performance. Of his friends, Cassandra had scored the best, out performing Terry in every category except for grip strength and throw distance. Mina had lost to him in most categories, except for the 50 meter dash, and Roy was the worst of the four. His quirk didn’t really help for tests like this. Still they had all scored all right._ _

__The rest of the day was spent with typical schooling. It was an odd disconnect to go from literal superhero class, to actual school. Still, it was a decent break for him given the training he inevitably had in store for him that night._ _

__The four friends walked home together, idly chatting about how fun the test was, despite the fear of expulsion. Terry for the most part was quiet, lost in thought. He wanted to understand why his teacher would glare at him specifically, trying to make a mental list of reasons. He was, however, pulled from his thoughts by the ever beaming smile of Mina. She had a look of confusion on her face._ _

__“Ah, I’m sorry was totally lost in thought,” Terry explained, “What was the question?”_ _

__She chuckled at him a bit before reiterating her question._ _

__“Sorry, I know you’re tougher than you showed, why were you holding back,” the pink skinned girl questioned._ _

__Thrown by the question, he paused for a moment. He hadn’t expected Mina to notice, but she was one of the only ones that saw him use his quirks full strength, even if it was briefly._ _

__“We’re gonna be put up against the other students eventually. For now, if I hold back, I have the advantage.”_ _

__“Ooh that makes sense,” She rubbed the back of her head, seemingly embarrassed, “Dang i should have thought of that.”_ _

__The idle chatter returned for a time, before the four had to part to continue to their own homes._ _

__\---------------------------------------------------_ _

__Terry had been right, Bruce had set a new simulation for him in the cave. When he got home, Bruce had been waiting for him, told him to suit up and was lead through the new bookshelf that hid the entrance to the cave. While Terry was getting into the batsuit Bruce was keying in the scenario. Before it could begin, however, They were interrupted by loud footsteps coming from the entry staircase for the cave._ _

__“Really Bruce,” asked the voice, stepping into the light to reveal Aizawa, “You brought in another one?”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the purposes of this story i have aged up Aizawa to around 35-40.


End file.
